Havok's History
Early Years
Alexander Summers is the son of Major Christopher Summers, a test pilot for the U.S. Air Force, and his wife Katherine Ann Summers. His older brother is Scott Summers. Both are mutants.
When Scott and Alex were boys flying home from a family vacation in their father's vintage private plane, a scout ship from the alien Shi'ar Empire suddenly materialized and set the plane ablaze. Katherine pushed Scott and Alex out the plane door with the only available parachute. The parachute caught fire, so Scott used his mutant optic blasts for the first time to slow their descent. Scott and Alex were unaware that their parents had been teleported from the plane by the Shi'ar a moment before it exploded.
Scott suffered a head injury on landing that damaged the part of Scott's brain that would have enabled him to control his optic blasts. The two boys were hospitalized and both suffered traumatic amnesia regarding the incident..
They left the hospital after two weeks and were placed in the State Home for Foundlings, an orphanage in Omaha, Nebraska and were subjected to a battery of tests and experiments by the orphanage's owner, Mr. Milbury, an alias for the evil geneticist and their future enemy Mr. Sinister. Sinister believed that Scott was the Summers brother with the most potential, so he had Alex adopted to separate them and render Scott emotionally vulnerable.
Alex had little or no contact with Scott until years later. Alex was raised by Andrew and Joanna Blanding, whose son Todd had been killed in a car accident. Alex was pressured to act as a replacement Todd, which he tried to do as best as he could.
When Todd's killer Vincent kidnapped Alex and his foster sister, Haley Blanding, Alex manifested his mutant powers for the first time, incinerating Vincent. Mister Sinister appeared, quite surprised to find that Alex?s potential possibly exceeded Scott's. Unfortunately, Alex lacked any control over his powers. Sinister placed psi-blocks on both Alex and Haley, causing them to forget everything that happened that night.
The immortal mutant Apocalypse encountered the non-mutant variant Ahmet Abdol and deemed him to be a broken, beaten man of great potential but without direction. Apocalypse acquired a sample of Alex Summers' DNA, insuring that its coding had been modified for his purposes, and had Sinister graft it to Abdol. The experiment was only partially successful and resulted in an unexpected and quite unusual symbiotic relationship wherein Abdol's power was split between them and not shared. Deciding to use his powers for his own personal gain, Abdol created a cult around himself as messiah, the Cult of the Living Pharaoh, became a super-villain and set about his plan to rule the world.
X-Men
Alex grew into an adult unaware of his brother's developing mutant power or his identity as Cyclops, leader of the X-Men, until after Alex graduated from Old Landon College's geophysical studies. Ahmet Abdol, then a professor of archaeology, discovered a psychic link between himself and Alex. While both of them possessed the latent mutant power to absorb and transform cosmic radiation, Abdol's ability to exercise the power was jammed in an unknown manner by Alex' body. Abdol captured Alex and took him to his laboratory in Egypt.
Abdol found a way to screen Summers' body from ambient cosmic radiation, permitting his own body to attain its latent potential. Abdol was transformed into the Living Monolith, a gigantic mutant with vast cosmic power. The Monolith was defeated while in combat with the X-Men when Alex's latent mutant powers surfaced under the stress of entombment within the mechanism designed to screen him from cosmic radiation.
Incapable of controlling the shock waves his body emanated, Summers chose to remain in the Egyptian desert, rather than accompany the X-Men back to America. Summers was soon captured by one of the mutant-hunting robotic Sentinels and brought to the headquarters of Larry Trask, the son of the Sentinels' inventor, Dr. Bolivar Trask. Trask gave Summers the codename Havok and a costume, whose chest display monitored the build-up of cosmic energy within him. When the X-Men finally freed Trask's captive mutants, Havok was severely injured.
The X-Men took Havok to Dr. Karl Lykos for treatment. Lykos tried to drain Havok's lifeforce to feed his own vampiric urges. Havok's mutant energy triggered his transformation into Sauron, a pterodactyl energy vampire. The X-Men battled with Sauron and stopped him from further leeching off Havok.
Alex accompanied his brother and his teammates back to the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, where he began training to help him keep his energy in check. While with the X-Men, Havok was immediately attracted to the green haired Lorna Dane, much to the anger of Iceman, who also showed a romantic interest in her. Professor Charles Xavier enlisted Alex and Lorna's help repelling an invasion by the alien Z'Nox. Later, Havok and Lorna met Ka-Zar in the Savage Land, were targeted by the Promise, and encountered the Hulk who mistook Lorna for his former lover Jarella.
Havok gained enough mastery over his power that he could release it only when he wished to do so, as opposed to when he was near death, and could wield his power skillfully enough to become a formidable opponent in battle. Following the X-Men's battle against the island Krakoa, Havok and Lorna left the X-Men to pursue their mutual interest in geophysics, attending graduate school in Nevada.
Alex and Lorna fell under the mind-control of the Shi'ar Intelligence agent Davan Shakari, also known as Erik the Red. A battle ensued at Kennedy International Airport as the duo were turned against the X-Men and attempted to assassinate Professor Xavier. They were both eventually freed from Shakari's control and stayed at Muir Island for their recovery.
At Muir Island Lorna and Alex were attacked by henchmen of the Living Pharaoh. After arriving in New York, Spider-Man came to their aid and accidentally knocked The Living Pharaoh into a containment unit that was to be used to make Alex a living battery to amplify the Pharaoh's powers a million fold, and he was transformed into the Living Monolith again. Monolith was beaten by Spider-Man and Thor. After returning to Muir Island, Alex and Lorna aided the X-Men battling Proteus.
Afterward, they settled in New Mexico, where they completed their advanced degrees. Their plan to stay out of the affairs of the outside world did not last long as Professor X called on Alex and Lorna for help in the rescue of the friends and family of the X-Men from Arcade's henchman Miss Locke in Murderworld.
Scott brought a visitor to meet Alex, his long lost father, who had become a space pirate called Corsair. Corsair had been captured and sold into slavery by the Shi'ar Empire and later became leader of the Starjammers. Alex learned his grandparents were still alive and owned a shipping company in Canada. At the Summers family reunion Scott was shocked to meet Madelyne Pryor, a pilot for his grandparents who was identical in appearance to Scott's late love and former X-Man Jean Grey. No one was unaware that Madelyne was a clone of Jean created and programmed by Sinister to fall in love with Scott to make use of their potentially powerful offspring for his own purposes. Scott and Madelyne did grow close and Alex attended their wedding as his best man.
Madelyne bore Scott a son named Nathan Summers. Eventually Scott and Madelyne's marriage became strained. Madelyne resented the fact that Scott was rarely home and that he continued to miss Jean. Scott became very distant, even leaving Madelyne in the middle of the night.
Finally, the news came that Jean Grey had been discovered alive. Scott was hit hard and hid this news from Madelyne. He left Madelyne and baby Christopher despite Madelyne's warning that if he left her again, he would not be welcome back. Scott, the other original X-Men founded X-Factor, an organization that intended to seek out and aid mutants under the pretense of hunting down mutants as "actual" menaces to society.
After beginning to fear for Madelyne's safety and feeling bad about abandoning his family, Scott went back to Alaska to look for them. Scott was unaware of Sinister's influence on his life. Sinister sent the Marauders to kill her and collect Nathan for him. She was shot multiple times and fell into a coma. She was taken to the hospital as a Jane Doe. Sinister erased every record of Madelyne and the baby. After finding the corpse of a young red-head in a river, Scott believed his wife was dead and buried her by himself.
Underground X-Men
While living in the Rio Diablo Mountains of New Mexico, Alex and Lorna stumbled upon a Brood Star-shark. Alex went to warn the X-Men who he found on the run from the Mister Sinister's Marauders. Storm ordered Psylocke to erase his memory so he wouldn't remember the X-Men were going to go underground and become a proactive strike force. Because Professor Xavier had trained him in mental defense, his psi-shields made him have reoccurring nightmares of being attacked by the X-Men. Alex left Lorna to check on the X-Men again. This time Psylocke refused to erase his memory a second time, fearing she might damage his mind. Havok agreed to return to the X-Men in their time of need.
While Havok was away the Marauders went after Polaris. The psychic entity Malice possessed her body and assumed leadership of the Marauders. Havok ran into Polaris/Malice in San Francisco when she was attempting to kill Madelyne Pryor who was still in a hospital. Malice made Alex aware of the fact that Lorna was being controlled and tormented him with the knowledge that he could do nothing about it.
In Dallas, Texas, the X-Men and Madelyne Pryor gave their lives to imprison the Adversary. The Omniversal Guardian Roma restored the X-Men to life. The event was broadcast live on television and the world believed the heroes to be dead. After being resurrected, the X-Men decided to go underground and keep their rebirth secret. The X-Men resurfaced in Australia, where they defeated the Reavers and claimed their base. Roma magically made them invisible to any sort of detection such as cameras.
The X-Men next investigated the Brood Star-shark Havok had found and tracked the source to Harry Palmer, who was unaware he was infected and had made an entire cr�che of mutant hosts. The X-Men were conflicted over killing the human hosts, but Havok was forced to kill several of them. He was left to wonder if killing becomes easier each time. Alex began to feel remorse for the lives he had taken, feeling that he was becoming more like Wolverine and resented the idea.
Madelyne Pryor soon learned that the reason Scott had abandoned her when she saw him on television with Jean Grey. The demon S?ym offered to help her locate her missing son and promised to give her a chance to get back at Scott and Jean. He infected her with his magic. Alex was confused and lonely because of the Polaris/Malice situation. Madelyne seduced him into an affair.
Madelyne tranformed into the Goblyn Queen and caused demonic invasion of New York with Havok as her Goblyin Prince. When X-Factor and X-Men met, Madelyne manipulated brother against brother. Havok accused Cyclops of abandoning his wife when she most needed him. Madelyne at last learned she was a clone of Jean and was driven mad. She died fighting the X-Men and X-Factor while trying to sacrifice her son to gain more power.. Mister Sinister was seemingly killed by Cyclops.
Alex and Wolverine were vacationing in Mexico and saved a woman from terrorist attackers. Alex woke up in a hospital in the care of nurse Scarlet McKenzie, who manipulated Alex and made him fall in love with her. Scarlett was actually working for the Russian scientist, Dr. Neutron (Meltdown) who wanted to use Alex as a means to absorb the energy of a breaking down atom reactor and transmute it into himself. Scarlett told Alex that terrorists were trying to sabotage the plant. When he ventured into the heart of the reactor he found it reaching critical limit. Alex tried to absorb the dangerous radiation and when he witnessed Dr. Neutron killing Scarlett, he shot his plasma at him, making Neutron stronger. The timely arrival of Wolverine prevented a full disaster. After Logan seemingly killed the scientist, Alex redirected the nuclear radiation into space. For Alex's sake, Wolverine kept Scarlett?s betrayal secret, as he was still trying to get over being manipulated by Madelyne.
Malice?s hold over Polaris weakened due to the death of Sinister. After Lorna freed herself from Malice, she called the X-Men (including Havok) for help from the southern-most tip of South America, only to be captured by Zaladane. Psylocke knew that returning to their Australian base was certain death, however the teleporter Gateway called the X-Men back (leaving Polaris stranded in South America) without being asked. Roma had presented them with the Siege Perilous, a gem that created a portal which granted any person who walked through it judgment and a new chance at life, with a new career, home, and so forth. Psylocke persuaded the Havok and the rest of X-Men to walk through the Siege Perilous rather than die at the hands of the Reavers. Lorna eventually regained her freedom and headed to Muir Island.
Alex re-emerged as a magistrate of Genosha, serving the state voluntarily. During this time Wolfsbane was forced to undergo the mutate process, and was genetically bonded to Magistrate Summers. In a battle with his brother, his memories returned. Afterwards, he elected to remain in Genosha to help put a new, better state together.
X-Factor
Later Havok, with Polaris again, joined the second incarnation of X-Factor, a newly-formed, government-funded, mutant agency. They overcame Mister Sinister and Ricochet's attempts to discredit the team. They fought the Mutant Liberation Front, and the Hell's Belles. They took down X-Force after an assassination attempt was made on the life of Charles Xavier. During a mission to Genosha, the connection between Havok and Wolfsbane was discovered.
The team battled the fanatical terrorist Haven who believed that, when the Mahapralaya came, the world would be destroyed and a new golden age would come about after it. Haven hoped to bring Mahapralaya about early. She took Wolfsbane through a Pralaya, moving her in and out of pocket dimensions, and cured her of the genetic bond. When haven tried to cure Multiple Man of the Legacy Virus, she failed, killing him. Havok was also deeply affected by the apparent death of his teammate and friend Jamie Madrox. Mourning Jamie?s death, he decided to quit the team until Polaris tracked him down and convinced him to stay with the team.
Later Havok's powers raged out of control. Havok was once again confined to the regulator costume he used to wear. He returned to X-Factor but was kidnapped by the bounty hunter called Random. Random brought him to the Dark Beast, the Beast's evil counterpart from another timeline. Havok was brainwashed and put in charge of McCoy's lackeys, including Fatale, Post and Random. McCoy came to serve Onslaught and offered his team's services to the powerful entity. Havok confronted his former X-Factor teammates and coldly hit Lorna with enough force to put her into cardiac arrest.
The Brotherhood
Apparently freed of mind-control, Havok founded a team of mutant terrorists called the Brotherhood. However, Havok did not truly become a terrorist. He joined the Brotherhood in order to stop the Dark Beast's sinister plans. Later he tried to kill JJ Jameson and nearly killed his brother. He also tried to recruit Nate Grey. He joined the X.U.E (mutants from the future) in stopping the Dark Beast.
Havok rejoined Lorna and what was left of X-Factor at the time. However, his teammate Greystone developed a severe case of temporal insanity and tried to use a slipshod time machine to return to his own time. Havok attempted to stop him but the time machine exploded, apparently killing them both.
Mutant X
In the explosion, Alex?s mind was transported to another reality, where he took over the body of his counter-part, who too was on the brink of death, as he had been shot by Sentinels. In this reality, Alex was leader of the Six, a team consisting of himself and altered versions of Madelyne Pryor, Iceman, Beast, Archangel and Storm (known here as Marvel Woman, Ice-Man, Brute, the Fallen and Bloodstorm).
There, Cyclops was taken into space twenty years ago, along with their parents, and Alex was married to Madelyne Pryor and was the father of their child, Scotty, named after his long missing older brother. Havok took the place of this dimension's Alex Summers as leader of the Six, though little Scotty recognized that he wasn't the same person anymore.
Madelyne changed into the Goblin Queen, a pure evil being intent on ruling the world. She was under the power of an entity called the Goblin Force. She fought against Havok and the remaining handful of super-heroes that were left after her attacks. She started fighting the evil influences of the entity. She, Havok, and Scotty were taken to the astral plane were the newly emerging powers of Scotty were able to contain the Goblin Force and unfortunately took Maddie with it. When it was revealed that the Beyonder was in fact the Goblin Queen, Havok managed to split Maddie and the Goblin Queen. Maddie has now been returned to her son.
Alex eventually returned to his own universe. He was discovered in a hospital in a comatose state. His mind eventually returned to its body with the help of young telepath Carter, son of Nurse Annie, who had cared for him.
Seizing the day, Alex's long-time love Lorna asked him to marry her. Somewhat shocked at such a life-altering question so soon after his return, Alex faltered over a reply but his assembled friends and family made the decision for him. However, Alex had fallen in love with Annie, and called off his wedding as Lorna was walking up the aisle. Lorna snapped and attempted to kill both Alex and his newfound love, but she was stopped by Alex's teammate, the Juggernaut.
Soon after, the alternate reality Havok's personality resurfaced within Alex, having followed Alex's consciousness back from within the void in which he had been trapped. The team of dimension-hopping mutants known as the Exiles were charged with the task of stopping the evil Havok, and they teamed up with the X-Men to prevent him from killing Carter. The evil consciousness was eventually forced out of Alex's body and sent back into the void where it was destroyed by the Exiles' taskmaster, the enigmatic being known as the Timebroker.
Following the Scarlet Witch's alteration of reality, many mutants were left powerless, including Polaris. When she chose to leave the X-Men Havok decided to accompany her. During an encounter with the creature called Daap, Polaris was abducted by Apocalypse and Havok returned to the X-Men.
After the battle with Apocalypse Wolverine discovered that one of his knocked-out horsemen was actually Polaris. As her esophagus closed down, Havok administered CPR to save her life, but was infected with the meta-plague. Luckily, Emma Frost saved some of the antidote Havok destroyed earlier and cured him with it.
Starjammers
Alex's long lost brother Vulcan returned from his space exile to reclaim his title as an X-Man, killing Banshee in the process. After it was revealed Xavier had deceived the X-Men by keeping Vulcan's existence a secret, the X-Men attacked him as they deemed him too dangerous to be left alone. Vulcan easily repelled their attack and fled the planet, renouncing Cyclops as his brother, and headed for space, bent on revenge on the Shi'ar empire for killing his mother.
Havok was recruited by Professor X, along with Marvel Girl, Nightcrawler, Warpath, Darwin and Polaris to participate in a space mission to stop Vulcan from unleashing his powers on the Shi'ar empire. Alex witnessed Vulcan murder their father. Alex, Lorna, and Rachel Summers stayed in space, joining the Starjammers to lead the resistance against Vulcan and his wife, Deathbird, who had conquered the Shi'ar Empire.
The civil war between Vulcan's forces and those loyal to the dethroned Lilandra raged on. Led by Havok and the Starjammers, Lilandra's forces gradually whittled away at Vulcan's forces, which were plagued by defections.
Warned in advance of a rebel raid on Feather's Edge, Vulcan and his fleet ambushed the Starjammers. However, in the middle of the battle, his ship, the Hammer, was destroyed by the Scy`ar Tal (translating to "Death to the Shi'ar"). Vulcan made contact with the Starjammers to call a temporary ceasefire.
Under the ceasefire, the Shi'ar and the Starjammers decided to take out the Finality, thus crippling the Scy'ar's biggest threat. Once Havok and Vulcan were in position to destroy Finality, the Eldest Scy'ar tried to stop them. Once Vulcan figured out how the Eldest was powered, he severed the connection Eldest had with his brothers, making him powerless. Once the connection was severed, the Scy'ar became unorganized, and the tide of the battle shifted to the Shi'ar. The Shi'ar then proceeded to attack both the Scy'ar and the Starjammers. Meanwhile, Vulcan blasted Havok into a sun.
Vulcan decided to use Finality to destroy the Scy'ar by using the weapon to place a star in the middle of their fleet. Alex returned and, having absorbed enough power to burn Vulcan, decided to end things with him. While they battled, Rachel and Korvus tried, and failed, to stop the beacon that would initiate the attack by the Shi'ar. The Shi'ar Imperial Guard ended Alex's battle with Vulcan by appearing with the Starjammers in captivity, threatening to kill them. Before surrendering, Alex destroyed Finality. Alex and the Starjammers were then taken into Vulcan's custody and placed in a prison, while Rachel Summers remained free. Alex and Lorna, along with the other captured Starjammers, were kept in a deep underwater prison below a planet's surface. Alex and Lorna were tortured daily and forced to hear each other's screams, and Alex was powerless as he was nowhere near a star or any cosmic force to draw his powers from.
Despite ploys such as telling Havok that his teammates were dead and it was all Alex's fault, Havok remained defiant. Alex had at least some power left. He allowed some time to go by, with moments of exposure continuing, before killing his guards and escaping. Alex then liberated his teammates from captivity. As he rescued Polaris, she gave him a thank-you kiss. Havok surprised his team as he informed them of his true plan. Instead of running they would wait, Gabriel would be coming to them to defeat them, and Havok planned to kill him when he did. After Rachel and Korvus lost their connection to the Phoenix Force, Havok and the Starjammers departed for Kree Space.
The group attended the wedding of Crystal and Ronan the Accuser. Vulcan and the Imperial Guard sacked the wedding and injured many present. The Kree then declared war on the Shi'ar.
X-Factor Investigations
After returning to Earth Havok joined X-Factor Investigations after the X-Men underwent their Schism on behalf of Wolverine. After Jamie Madrox's apparent death, Wolverine suggested that Havok and Polaris take over leadership of X-Factor Investigations. After Jamie's return from death, he and Alex agreed to share leadership with Alex taking the lead on missions from Valerie Cooper and Wolverine and Jamie taking the lead on the rest.
Uncanny Avengers
Havok joined the conflict between the Avengers and the X-Men on the side of his fellow mutants. After the last two Phoenixes, Cyclops and Emma Frost, began to lose control, Havok and many other X-Men joined the Avengers in attempting to defeat them. Cyclops later defeated Emma in order to absorb the whole Phoenix Force and become the Dark Phoenix, but was finally defeated and incarcerated.
At the end of the war, Captain America realized that the Avengers had stood by and allowed the world to hate mutants and that they should have done more to help them. As a result, he formed a new team of Avengers in hopes of unifying mutant and humankind. He chose Havok to lead his team and become the new face to represent mutants as Professor X and Cyclops once were.
Their first threat was a brain-washed Avalanche, who was sent by the Red Skull to create chaos and increase the fear against mutants. The Avengers managed to save innocent citizens from Avalanche's destruction, although he later disappeared from the scene.
After the attack, Alex helped in the search for survivors but there were none. However, one of those who were saved by Alex thanked him and told him he doesn't care what the world thinks about mutants, that all he cares about is that Havok saved him and his daughter, and that there aren't enough heroes in the world.